Feeling Rough
by rhoades
Summary: Out the night before...too much to drink? Or is it something more? Something eating you from the inside out. What happens when your body changes and you don't even know about it!


Feeling Rough

_7 am – Monday_

Wha...?

Where?...

Who the hell?

My body wakes slowly, my brain refusing to fire the synapses I need for immediate wakefulness, though there is some part of me which realises that, indeed, I am awake.

I force my eyelids to open and stare at the blankness that I find there. My thoughts are jumbled and fragmented and it takes me a moment (or several) to get everything in order.

I've gone blind.

But, no, that isn't right, there are shades of light and dark, shapes and textures that my senses can perceive, and then it hits with a sudden realization...

I am twisted in the covers of my bed and they press against my body restricting movement and sight where they wrap around my body and head.

I force my aching bones to move and hook my fingers into the sweat-damp sheets attempting to free myself from this cocoon and fail resoundingly. I have no strength, none whatsoever and so choose (although there is really no choice) to stay where I am. I'll phone the office in a while and tell them that I am sick.

I reach for the phone where it lays at the side of the bed and feel my eyelids start to close of their own accord. Before unconsciousness claims me I come to realise two things;

One is the sounds outside my closed window, shouts and the scream of tyres, the loud pop of large fireworks.

The other is the bite of the drunk last night starting to itch like crazy.

_11 am Wednesday_

Thirsty...so thirsty...

I fall out of bed and crawl on all fours to the bathroom, pushing the door open with my face when I reach it.

I wobble to the sink and force my legs to work, raising my head above the rim so I can get to the tap. Reaching out I use all the strength that I can manage to twist the small metal wheel and then unceremoniously thrust my open mouth under the torrential stream that emerges. The ice-cold water cascades into my throat and down over my chin soaking the already drenched t-shirt and shorts.

I get the sudden feeling of crawling insects all over my exposed skin but am so weak after the trek to the bathroom that I find I can do nothing to relieve it.

At least the pain in my arm seems to have gone, that's something I suppose.

I twist the tap off almost all the way and force myself to my feet holding on to the basin for support, knowing that if it wasn't for it then I would be back on the floor.

Taking a deep breath I close my eyes and try to control the sudden sense of vertigo that hits my head.

Breathe...

In...out...

In...out...

In...

The water that I threw down my throat into my stomach rebels and flies back into the world along with, what feels like, everything that I have ever eaten in the last few weeks. It comes out in a stinking torrent, the smell like an open sewer.

Water, food and almost-black internal blood spatters the walls around me and the floor underneath me. My legs cannot hold my weight and I crumple to the floor in an untidy tangle of limbs. My brain registers the far away pain as my elbow hits the edge of the custom-made steel bath and splinters bone seperating it from its socket.

Then I know no more.

_6 pm - ?_

Red...

The whole world (the small space around me being the whole of my life at this point) is red, and it is a tangible thing that my body can smell...

And taste

I stand in the room and look at a face that I don't recognise.

Opening my mouth I snarl at the intruder and it mimics me showing cracked and broken teeth in a face of ripped and torn skin.

The black, dead eyes stare back at me with indifference.

I lift one arm and paw at the things face raking cracked fingernails down its face doing no real damage but eliciting another low growl from the monstrous visage.

My other arm hangs limp and useless at my side, flopping from side to side with the movements of my body.

In a moment of anger I open my mouth and roar at the other standing just in front of me. It opens its mouth and roars right back. I lift my still functioning arm and force my fingers into a fist. I swing with all the strength that I can muster and swing for the creature.

There is a loud noise and the intruder is gone, shattered into innumerable parts as something explodes and throws fragments everywhere.

I lift my hand towards my face seeing the mirrored shards embedded in the tight skin. A thin trickle of red glides down from the torn flash and I look with wonder and not a little interest. Bringing the hand closer I latch my mouth to it and suck loudly.

Whatever is in my skin cuts the inside of my mouth and more fluid flood in.

It is good...very good.

I need to find more...

Much more.

Turning slowly in the small room I see an opening and stumble through it into a larger room, sounds from outside drawing my attention to a darkening square on one side. I make my way over to it and look into a larger world.

I see others like me there; some walking others crawling along the floor, dragging themselves along with a single-mindedness. I want to be with them.

To walk with them...to crawl with them.

This is our world now.

Hungry...

So very hungry.

**A.N.**

**I had this story rattling around my head for a few days now and just had to get it out.**

**I hope you like it...if you don't, then I am sure you will let me know.**


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